AO1

• Bowlby proposed that pronlonged emotional deprivation would have a long-term consequence in terms of emotional devdevelopment
• 3 important strands of this theory

  1. The value of maternal care
  2. Critical period
  3. Long-term consequences
• This is the theory that an attachment is essential for healthy psychological and emotional development. It states that there will be many negative consequences of maternal deprivation (being deprived/separated from a mother-like figure), such as:

  • An inability to form attachments in the future (see the Internal Working Model)
  • Affectionless psychopathy (being unable to feel remorse)
  • Delinquency (behavioural problems in the child’s teenage years)
  • Problems with cognitive (brain) development
• Attachments are commonly disrupted in situations when a child is put in day care, has prolonged stays in hospital care or were put in institutional care to be separated from abusive/ neglectful or unintentionally absent parents. This can have temporary effects on the child, or permanent but fairly mild harm.
• Privation is when a child fails to form any attachments at all. This has been said to be more harmful to a child. One of the most common causes of privation has been institutional care
• • The continuity hypothesis states that prolonged separation/deprivation from the mother limits the development of an effective schema (internal working model) for later relationships. If this schema fails to develop properly then it will lead to unsuccessful childhood and adulthood relationships as well as issues with their own parenting skills.